Queen's Sailing Team History

Queen’s University was, for many years, the only Canadian school to compete as a full member of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA).

The competitive team in the 1970’s was quite successful in the American circuit and in 1976-1977 and 1978-1979, Queen’s Sailing team member Terry McLaughlin was awarded All-American status (Terry is the only sailor from a non-American school to ever receive this award).

Interest in sailing completely faded in the 1980’s, mainly because the team didn’t own any boats.

In 1992, a group led by John Curtis, Ian Eskritt, and Tommy and Tanya Wharton reignited the idea of having a Queens Sailing Team.

The late Dr Rudy Kalin was instrumental in helping students navigate so it could become established as an official team at Queen’s.

Past KYC Commodore Ted Ison was a Queen’s Alumni and Faculty advisor for many years (1996?-X), and blew many whistles especially in the early years of the team.

In 1993 the team became a member of MAISA (Mid-Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association), thereby qualifying to race in this division of the American Intercollegiate circuit. At that time MAISA included 37 schools spanning from Kingston to Norfolk, Virginia.

Long term goals set out in 1993 included: developing a racing team, holding practices, developing a recreational learn-to-sail program for the students and faculty of Queen’s University, promoting collegiate racing in Canada, attracting competitive sailors to attend Queen’s, and most importantly, buying boats to facilitate these goals.

Throughout the early ‘90’s the team was an AMS club, receiving $2,500 yearly in funding. It was unaffiliated with Queen’s Athletics.

In 1995, Queen’s Athletics invited the sailors to become a club team and receive $5,000 every year, as well as rental cars for road trips. Since this time, Queens Sailing has received funding as a competitive club.

The Canadian Intercollegiate Sailing Association (CICSA) began in 2011 thanks to the hard work of QST Alum Landon Gardner (Sci ‘10). The QST hosted and placed 1st at the inaugural Team Race Nationals. The team also won the first CICSA Fleet Race Nationals, hosted by McGill.